60 rejection
by Lulunoel
Summary: Part of my 100 theme challenge. Loosely based off of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Nico falls for his best friend while his best friend falls for someone else. one-sided Pernico. Percabeth. one-shot.


This story is a part of my 100 theme challenge and is loosely based off of the Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Spoilers for those who have not read House of Hades. I've always thought that the feelings Alec has for Jace slightly resembled the unrequited feelings Nico felt for Percy and this story is based off of that. Enjoy.

60. rejection

He knew he was in love with his best friend when he was thirteen. They were fighting off a rogue group of monsters somewhere in downtown New York and Nico had just finished killing off a lamia when he heard a sword hit the ground. Turning, he saw Percy lying on the ground with a large amount of blood pouring from a rip on his right forearm. In a blind rage of fury, Nico killed off the remaining monsters before slinging Percy across his shoulder and rushing back to the Half-Blood Institute, a sanctuary and school of sorts to demigods.

Nico had sat with Percy all night, staying long after his cousin, Thalia, had gone to bed. The healers had reassured him that Percy would make a full recovery but Nico just couldn't leave his friend's side. And as he watched the sleeping form of the son of Poseidon, he knew that his feelings for Percy ran far deeper than friendship.

He kept his feelings a secret. He, Percy, and Thalia were a team and he was not going to ruin that just because he loved his best friend. He knew Thalia knew because she had cornered him about it one night and forced him to admit it. But Percy was still clueless and Nico intended for it to stay that way.

But although he kept his feelings a secret, that wasn't to say he didn't get extremely jealous. Percy was incredibly good-looking, definitely having inherited the handsome godly traits of his father, and he did not lack when it came to female companionship. But there was nothing Nico could say or do about Percy's love life and he was forced to just sit back and silently wallow in hurt.

And then everything changed and Nico's heart split in two when the trio had stumbled across a mortal who had managed to see them. Mortals that could see through the mist were rare and Percy had a suspicion that the girl was a demigod like them so he set out to find her. And when he did find her it was right after her dad had been taken, her home destroyed, and she had managed to get bitten by a monster. When Percy had dragged the half conscious girl back to the institute, Nico felt like picking her up and leaving her outside to die. Because the look in Percy's eyes as he gazed down at the fair haired beauty hurt more then any injury he had ever received. And he knew at that moment that Percy's feelings for the girl were more than slight attraction and curiosity.

Percy explained that Annabeth's father had been taken by Kronus, a titan the gods thought had died years ago but had actually managed to escape and was now building an army. Annabeth's father had stolen the Mortal Sword, the most powerful weapon ever known, from the titan in order to stop Kronus years ago and had managed to keep it a secret until then. The Mortal Sword was still hidden as Annabeth's fathers attackers failed to find it at her apartment and the demigods were now in a race against the titans to see who could find the weapon first.

Annabeth stayed at the institute since her home was destroyed. Nico watched in silent pain as she and Percy grew closer and closer together, coming up with plans to find Annabeth's dad and trying to think of where he could have hidden the Mortal Sword.

Nico did not like Annabeth and he was sure everyone at the institute knew it. Percy had tried multiple times to get Nico to explain his obvious dislike towards the newly discovered demigod but Nico just kept his mouth shut. How do you explain to your best friend that you were in love with them and seeing them fall in love with someone else hurt to the point where it was hard to breathe sometimes?

It wasn't until about a week after Annabeth had arrived at the institute that they finally had a breakthrough in their quest to find the Mortal Sword. The breakthrough ended up being a dead end, though, that led to him, Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia getting lured into a trap by a large clan of lamia. They were lucky that Artemis had shown up with her hunters in order to save them or else they would've been dead.

After that mishap, Annabeth and Percy decided that they would continue to explore places they thought the sword could be, but only in broad daylight to avoid monsters. Nico silently fumed as he was left behind to watch as his best friend put his life on the line to save a stupid mortal girl who did not belong in their world.

"She's going to get us all killed," Nico had whispered furiously to Thalia one afternoon while Percy and Annabeth were off searching for the sword.

Thalia let out a long breath. "Maybe," she had said. "Maybe not. All I know is that ever since she's gotten here we haven't been a team."

And that was another thing. All their lives, Nico, Percy, and Thalia had worked together to destroy every monster they could in order to protect the humans. But now Percy was operating on his own, choosing to play hero for Annabeth and abandoning his duties to his team.

Almost three weeks after Annabeth had moved into the institute she had another breakthrough on where she thought the sword to be. She told them of a deck of tarot cards her father had given to a supposed witch that lived a floor below them that she knew to be a gift of Athena. The Mortal Sword was painted onto one of the cards and Annabeth displayed to them her special talent to actually trap objects into paper. A blessing from Athena, her mother, she told them. She believed that her mother had placed the Mortal Sword into the card in order to hide it.

And so they set out to Annabeth's old apartment building, all dressed in black and carrying a large array of weapons. Nico felt uneasy about the trip and he felt as if something bad was going to happen but he kept his concerns to himself. And despite his uneasiness about going back Annabeth's apartment where he was sure Kronus had planted monsters, he went anyways because Percy was going and Nico would always be there for Percy no matter what.

Nico was right to feel uneasy and he was right in thinking that Kronus had planted monsters inside the apartment. A kobalos, a mischievous demon with a long scorpion tail, had taken the form of Mellie, the supposed witch that Annabeth's father gave the tarot cards to, and as soon as Annabeth pulled the Mortal Sword from the card the kobalos ripped apart Mellies body and began attacking them. The monster had attacked Annabeth and Percy first, picking them up and throwing them against a bookshelf, leaving them sprawled out on the ground. The monster then turned on Thalia and with a move as quick as lightning the monster had thrown Thalia out of the apartment and moved a piano in front of the door, blocking the rest of them in. Seeing Percy lying motionless on the ground with the kobalos about to strike him with its tail caused the blind rage to take over Nico and he tackled the demon and managed to get it into a chokehold. He was just about to plunge his sword into the monster's torso when he was stabbed from behind. The stupid monster had struck him with its scorpion tail.

Nico fell to the ground and withered around in pain. His body felt as if it was on fire and everything in him hurt. He tried to concentrate on the noises around him to ignore the pain. He heard a scraping sound and assumed the kobalos was moving the piano. Then he heard the angered cries of Thalia and Percy as they killed the demon and retrieved the Mortal Sword.

"There's a portal," Percy said. "I saw it the last time Annabeth and I were here. That must've been how Kronus got the demon in. We can get Nico back to the institute through it.

Nico was paralyzed. He was aware of everything around him but he couldn't move. He barely felt it when Percy picked him up and he completely blacked out when they stepped through the portal.

Nico came to his senses later when they were back in the institute. He couldn't move or open his eyes but he could hear everything going on around him. He couldn't really feel much from his neck down and his eyes wouldn't open and he couldn't move but he could hear. He heard when Thalia had yelled "Nico warned us that we were going to get hurt and now he's the one dying," and he'd heard it when Annabeth had whispered "I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt." But then the noise had died down and the voices left and he thought maybe they were leaving him because they couldn't help him and he was actually going to die but then he'd heard a slight shifting in the room and a pressure on his forehead and he knew someone was there trying to save him. The person moved silently and the only time he spoke to Nico was to say "My name is Will. Your friends called me here to watch after you. Kronus took the Mortal Sword and your friends have gone off to get it back."

Later that night when he heard a chair scrape against the ground and he heard Percy start to speak, he desperately wished to be able to wake up and look into the green eyes that had become his favorite color.

"We're safe now," Percy told him. "Kronus has disappeared for the moment, and he has the Mortal Sword, but for now we're safe. And it's all thanks to you. You sacrificed yourself to save me and that was so stupid of you to do, but you saved us. Thank you." There was a pause and Nico thought that maybe Percy was getting ready to leave him but then he continued talking. "You're my brother, my partner in everything. If you die, a piece of me dies, too. So stay alive, okay? Because I need you and I need you by my side. And I can't fight without you and I promise that we will be a team again and I will not abandon you again. And I'm sorry I can't love you in the way you love me, but I just want you to know that I do love you and I can't lose you."

And as he felt a soft pressure against his lips, Nico knew that even though his heart had been shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces, he would be able to piece himself back together.


End file.
